Freedom S&l Votes To Merge With Centrust

The board of directors of Freedom Savings and Loan Association voted Friday to sell the Tampa-based savings institution for slightly more than $70 million to CenTrust Savings Bank.

The Freedom merger with Miami-based CenTrust would create the largest thrift institution in Florida, with combined assets of $7.6 billion. The agreement in principle must be approved by shareholders of both companies and by federal regulators.

The merger proposal, announced last week, calls for CenTrust to pay $22 in cash or securities for each share of Freedom stock. Freedom stock, traded on the over-the-counter market, was selling Thursday at $16. That compared with $9 four months ago.

Both CenTrust and Freedom have a major presence in Central Florida. Freedom, which acquired Winter Park-based ComBanks in 1983, has 20 of its 40 branches in the Orlando area; the remainder are in the Tampa-St. Petersburg market. CenTrust operates 14 of its 43 offices in Central Florida; the others are concentrated in South Florida.

Under the merger plan, David Paul would remain chairman and chief executive officer of the corporation. Robert Klingler, who holds the same positions with Freedom, would become CenTrust's president.

While Freedom's headquarters is nominally in Tampa, most of its senior officers work in the former ComBanks offices on U.S. Highway 17-92 in Winter Park.

Freedom lost nearly $44 million during 1983 and 1984, but this week it reported a 1985 profit of $9.1 million. The 1985 Freedom profit resulted from $2.7 million in pre-tax income from operations and $6.4 million from the sale of 10 of its branch offices outside the Orlando and Tampa areas.

Freedom said it had assets of $2.6 billion and deposits of $1.9 billion as of Dec. 31. CenTrust, now the second-largest thrift in Florida, reported assets of $4.83 billion and deposits of $2.8 billion.